“Seriously, the Irene School has no sense of ethics!”
“Right? If they keep this up, who will play the game we made?”
The emergence of the Legend Fighter came as a shock to other schools that were creating game magic.
Just when they thought they could catch up to the Irene School and expect to sit on a pile of gold, the final boss suddenly descended, devastating the game market.
Their dreams of possibly catching up to the Irene School ended like a midsummer night’s dream.
There was another reason, aside from game quality, that made this possible.
My focus on Legend Fighter wasn’t just on the characters and martial arts.
It was all about the story.
There was literature and theater even in this other world.
Not quite movies, but there were shops selling recorded plays, and although it wasn’t my taste, I had seen some myself.
So far, story had not been crucial in games, but seeing graphics improve and character traits being introduced made me greedy.
I wanted to truly make the story of this legendary game epic.
So, I decided to reference the plot from the movie Captain Justice I had seen in my previous life and incorporate it into the story of Legend Fighter.
The story I envisioned went something like this.
A legendary soldier and master of the empire’s martial arts, ‘Zergas’, named ‘Karuga Nova’, was sealed 500 years ago by a sealing magic.
After 500 years, he is resurrected with the help of a soldier named ‘Vail’.
As he fights as a soldier once again, he learns of a mysterious organization, ‘Dark Star’, aiming to ignite war and reap profits, and he sets out alone in solitude to protect peace.
While continuing to fight, sometimes to persuade and sometimes to thwart conspiracies, he discovers that his ally and superior, ‘Vail’, is actually the leader of Dark Star.
Vail had a plan to assassinate royalty from neighboring countries for peace relations and reignite war, and Karuga goes on a broadcast to expose it.
And then…
“There is always a price for peace. It has always been this way. And I am prepared to pay that price. I don’t mind doing it alone, but I believe it won’t be so.”
Karuga finishes his speech and sets out to thwart the conspiracy.
The foes are not just a few, yet at that moment, fighters who had battled alongside Karuga, and junior soldiers trying to stop him, began to join him one by one, paving his way.
Thus, Karuga faces the final boss and mastermind behind it all, Vail, to thwart the conspiracy in the blazing Zephia Coliseum.
The protagonist fights the final battle amidst roaring flames and dedicated BGM,
Ugh, just imagining it gets me hyped.
It’s a story where the martial arts master, Ahn Joong-geun, is resurrected to block conspiracies and reclaim peace.
In a place familiar with such fantasy stories, I was sure this plot would resonate with people, and I showed it to my family first.
“Yuren, this is really well-written! Did you really write this?”
“Um… for now?”
I had a conscience, so I couldn’t say I wrote it 100%.
Julia, after reading the script, chimed in.
“Hahaha! Yuren, this story is touching and good, but is it really okay to write this? I’m worried.”
“Don’t worry, I checked just in case.”
I could see why Julia was worried.
A story where a mysterious organization influences a nation seemed like it could cause big trouble, and I contacted Mineva from the Minister’s Office to confirm it.
“Ha… it’s a bit risky, but it’s fine.”
And luckily, since there was nothing touching the royal family, I got the green light.
Thus, the story of the original Street Fighter II was significantly enhanced and was released.
And it brought a new cultural shock to the users of ‘Legend Fighter.’
“Wow, Karuga is so cool.”
“Right!? I cried during the final boss battle!”
A legendary general from 500 years ago resurrects to fight to protect peace.
Children experienced the thrill of a validated story in this other world and couldn’t contain themselves.
“From today, my main character is Karuga!”
“Me too!”
Naturally, Karuga already had great base stats.
With such a captivating tale released in abundance, gamers began to exclusively choose Karuga.
Under normal circumstances, game balance would collapse and the game might fail, but surprisingly, that situation didn’t arise quickly.
Because there were reasons to play characters other than Karuga too.
“Hey, why do you keep using the weak Alicia?”
“She’s pretty, and do you guys know? Sometimes Alicia takes off her clothes while using her illusion skill…”
“What!?”
“Sh-She takes off her clothes!?”
It was primarily due to the presence of attractive female characters.
The seductive dark elf character, ‘Alicia’, the nekomimi character with white ears, ‘Blanc’, and the attractive Asian beauty character with solid thighs, ‘Curie’, ignited curiosity in many male gamers.
“Um… now that I see it again… she looks great.”
“Right? Shall we practice a bit?”
Likewise, the charming characters validated in this other world had male gamers losing focus.
The concept of favorite characters began to emerge.
“Alicia is the best!”
“Are you ignoring Blanc!?”
“I can’t be friends with you who don’t understand the greatness of Curie’s thighs.”
It’s not that the characters were weak.
It’s that my feelings towards the characters were weak.
Gamers who developed affection for certain characters played and practiced with them not out of performance, but out of love.
These skilled players balanced the game arena, preventing it from becoming boring by everyone only playing Karuga.
Moreover, the impact created by the appealing female characters didn’t stop there.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Who is it?”
“I was introduced by Amel; I heard I could buy that Curie picture here…”
“Hmm… it’s 7000 gold for the first volume.”
Wizards capable of artistic activities through drawing or video magic began distributing books of such artwork featuring female characters.
It was a moment when subculture was slowly but surely rising in this other world.
*
A month had passed since the release of Legend Fighter.
Legend Fighter drew people’s enthusiasm as planned, and with the thrill of the story and the support from the Minister’s Office, kids began to take it upon themselves to learn martial arts, recovering the strong image of the empire day by day.
But just like the saying goes that a fierce flame extinguishes as quickly, a crisis approached the success of Legend Fighter that burned like a blaze.
“Yuren-hyung, is it really okay like this?”
“Why?”
Noirin, back from hanging out at the local arcade, looked serious as she spoke to me.
Seeing Noirin, who usually smiled, with such a grave expression made me think it must be something serious.
“I noticed at the arcade today that people are mostly just using Karuga. Maybe that’s why Legend Fighter is starting to feel less fun.”
It seemed people were quickly leaning into performance-based gameplay, since command inputs were easy and thus learning was simple.
It wasn’t just Noirin who felt that way.
“Noirin, you felt that too? I thought so too.”
Jiren, who enjoyed Legend Fighter just as much as Noirin, also seemed worried.
Karen looked at me worriedly upon hearing both of them.
“What should we do, Yuren-nim?”
The problem with fighting games back in the arcade days was this.
In an era where patching and data modifications weren’t possible, once a fighting game was released, balance often remained fixed.
As a result, characters such as “This Time’s Patch” or “Jinpu Hakken Berin” created overpowered character groups, quickly diminishing the fun of diverse strategies among various characters.
Of course, there were unavoidable aspects due to the nature of the game.
People are discriminatory beings, so rather than everyone being equally strong, they prefer that their favorite, frequently used powerful character clearly exists.
To highlight the protagonist while also addressing the quickly collapsing balance issue, I had prepared for this.
“It seems it’s time to use that.”
“That?”
I decided it was time to use what I had prepared.
Upon hearing my words, my master eagerly ran over.
“Are you finally using that, my disciple!”
“Yes, Master, it seems the time has come to use that.”
The other disciples, curious about what only my master and I knew, began to ask.
“What is it? Hyung?”
“That’s right. I’m curious too, Yuren-hyung!”
I smiled at the disciples.
“I have something prepared for situations like this, it’s called a [Hidden Character].”
“A Hidden Character?”
The appearance of a hidden character.
I was already looking forward to how many users would be overly excited and writhing in joy.
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